Mills in California Agree to Reductions In Ocean Pollutants

Published: September 11, 1991

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 10—
The Environmental Protection Agency and a group of environmentally conscious surfers have reached an agreement with two paper mills under which the mill owners will pay $5.8 million in penalties for polluting a beach.

The Louisiana-Pacific Corporation and the Simpson Paper Company in Eureka, Calif., agreed to pay the penalties, which stem from violations of the Clean Water Act, for having dumped pulp mill byproducts, including dioxin, into the Pacific Ocean, the E.P.A. said Monday.

The agency and the Surfrider Foundation had fought for three years to stop the daily dumping of 40 million gallons of toxic waste from the companies' bleaching process.

"Our message today is loud and clear: Polluters will pay," said Daniel McGovern, the agency's district administrator. "They will pay the costs of cleaning up the pollution, and they will pay significant penalties for violating the law."

Surfers at a beach two miles south of the dumping site had long complained that the 20-foot waves were frequently contaminated by the waste released offshore, said Mark Massara, the lawyer for the surfers' group.

Mr. Massara said many surfers complained of nausea and headaches caused by the strong sulfurous smell of the blackened water. Some suffered skin rashes and eye irritation, he said.

Also, testing has shown that marine life in the area, like kelp, sand dollars and mussels, has been harmed by the waste, Mr. McGovern said.

Although the agreement does not force the mills to stop polluting immediately, Louisiana-Pacific has agreed to build an extension pipe that will take the waste farther out to sea by October 1992, the E.P.A. said. Simpson has agreed to eliminate certain chemicals from the bleaching or extend drainage farther into the ocean by October 1993.

In the meantime, surfers will probably continue using the waters south of the dumping site, said the Surfrider president, Rob Caughlan.

"Surfers are risk-takers," he said. "We surf down here, and there are great white sharks. It's all part of living in the food chain."